How to Hand Pollinate Dahlias

Cross-pollinate dahlias to develop new cultivars.

Dahlias, a genus of perennial flowering plants, are available in a rainbow of colors and a variety of stunning shapes. Dahlias look delightful in the flower bed or a container and make excellent cut flowers for vases or bouquets. Gardeners typically grow dahlias from tubers, but hand pollination is a way to create your own cultivars. Bees and other flying insects pollinate dahlias; however, this can produce unpredictable results. Hand pollination allows you to control the parent plants, giving you much more reliable results.

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Cut a male dahlia flower off the plant, leaving several inches of stem attached. Remove all the petals.

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Place the stem of the male flower in a glass of cool, fresh water. Allow the flower to develop more dry pollen.

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Select a female dahlia flower for pollination. Choose a flower with a center that is just starting to open. Do not choose a flower that has already been pollinated. Pollinated flowers have separated disk florets in the center.

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Remove all the petals from the female flower. Cover the remaining center of the flower with a small plastic bag. Secure the bag with string or a clip.

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Uncover the female flower when the stigmas in the center have opened. The stigmas are the small U-shaped filaments extending out of the tubular structures in the center of the flower.

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Dust the stigmas of the female dahlia with the pollen-coated center of the male flower. Brush the stigmas gently in several directions. Cover the female flower immediately after pollinating.

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Repeat the pollination process daily until the female flower's stigmas turn brown and start to shrivel. Cover the pollinated flower for three or four weeks.

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Remove the female flower from the plant. Leave a few inches of stem attached.

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Place the female flower's stem in a glass of water. Wait for the seed pod in the center of the flower to turn from green to pale yellow.

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Remove the seed pod when it has turned yellow and dried. Break open the seed pod to reveal the seeds.

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Store the dahlia seeds in an envelope until you want to sow them. Write the name of the parent plants on the envelope.

Things You Will Need

Scissors

Glass

Plastic bag

String or clip

Envelope

Tips

Spraying the seed head with fungicide can help prevent rot. Properly removing all the flower's petals also reduces the chance of rot.

To create new dahlia cultivars, use a male and a female flower from two different plants.

About the Author

Melissa King began writing in 2001. She spent three years writing for her local newspaper, "The Colt," writing editorials, news stories, product reviews and entertainment pieces. She is also the owner and operator of Howbert Freelance Writing. King holds an Associate of Arts in communications from Tarrant County College.